Key facts
- Women in the EU earn 11.1% less than men.
- Women pensioners in the EU receive 24.5% less than men on average.
- The gender pension gap is more than double the gender pay gap.
- Factors contributing to the pension gap include differences in employment volume, career interruptions, and years in paid work.
- Gender roles and unpaid care work significantly contribute to these disparities.
The gender pension gap across Europe is more than double the gender pay gap, with women receiving 24.5% less in retirement income compared to men, while the pay gap stands at 11.1%. Experts attribute this widening disparity to a combination of factors that accumulate over a woman's lifetime.
These factors include not only differences in hourly wages but also significant disparities in employment volume, career interruptions, and the total number of years spent in paid work. These issues are largely rooted in traditional gender roles, which often result in women taking on a greater share of unpaid care work, leading to part-time employment or extended breaks from the labor market, particularly around childbirth.
According to Eurostat data, the gender pay gap varies across Europe, ranging from a slight advantage for women in Luxembourg (-0.8%) to a significant gap in Estonia (18.8%). The gender pension gap, however, shows a more pronounced difference, with Estonia at 5.6% and Malta at 38.2%. Countries like the UK, Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Ireland exhibit pension gaps exceeding 30%.
Academics explain that small differences in earnings, hours worked, and career breaks compound over decades due to the nature of pension accumulation, particularly the effect of compound interest. This means that initial inequalities in earnings and employment history are magnified by the time individuals reach retirement age.
In a few Eastern European countries, such as Estonia, Slovakia, Czechia, and Hungary, the gender pension gap is lower than the gender pay gap. This is partly due to a historical trend of women returning to the workforce relatively quickly after having children. However, in most of Europe, the lifetime impact of caregiving responsibilities and resulting lower lifetime earnings significantly contributes to the wider gender pension gap.